A North Carolina woman who was stabbed by a homeless repeat offender at a New Jersey airport over the weekend spoke about the horrific attack, recalling the moments before and after the assault.
“I was just waiting for my friend to come out of the bathroom, browsing on my phone,” Melissa Mauldin told “Fox & Friends First” on Thursday. “He came from behind. I didn’t hear him because the airport is so loud, but he came from behind with a knife in my face and stabbed me there. When I felt the pressure, I thought he had just hit me. So I turned around to see what was going on and saw a man with a knife just staring at me.”
“So I immediately ran and screamed for help,” she continued.
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North Carolina resident Melissa Mauldin was stabbed by a repeat offender at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey over the weekend. (Screenshot “Fox & Friends First”)
Jin Xiong, 54, was immediately arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport and charged with aggravated assault and illegal possession of a weapon, ABC7 New York reports. He could also face an aggravated charge of attempted murder, the Union County District Attorney’s Office said.
Mauldin was in New Jersey for a friend’s wedding at the time of the incident and was on his way home.
The suspect is said to have attacked her just days after his release from prison for grievous bodily harm.
Mauldin blames the justice system for the attack, arguing that the judges involved in his numerous criminal cases have “failed” her and the community by endangering public safety.
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“They’ve failed me. They’ve failed others by only charging this man with simple assault, putting him in jail for a short time, and then releasing him,” Mauldin said. “I think someone who has already stabbed multiple people should be charged with attempted murder, not simple assault, and should not be allowed to walk the streets while the rest of us harm others.”
“That’s my main goal, to bring this story to light so that he may not have a chance to harm someone else the way he harmed me,” she continued.
Xiong has been in and out of prison since 2009. He reportedly stabbed two people in 2007 and stabbed a New Jersey correctional officer in the neck with a sharpened pencil in 2009.
“I still can’t understand it,” she said.
